To say that No Man’s Sky is an eagerly awaited game would be an understatement, as this epic space video game by developer Hello Games is obviously on many players’ wish lists for summer 2016.
The game promises a big galaxy for players to explore with countless procedurally generated planets (one of the game’s biggest draws no doubt), first-person combat and space dogfights, and even an elaborate trading system and economy.
But No Man’s sky has become controversial even before its release, first due to a legal dispute with Sky TV over the game’s name, and later due to the game’s delay last June which left many gamers who had been looking forward to playing the game disgruntled, and more recently Hello Games was even accused of using a patented formula without permission which was supposedly used to generate the game’s elaborate worlds…
The latest controversy related to the game is different though, and involves a Reddit user who claimed to have got hold of a copy of the game before its official release date on August 9, reaching the conclusion that the game was a disappointment, according to gaming blog Kotaku.
This left many who were expecting No Man’s Sky to be the next big thing in gaming in a state of shock, as not only Reddit user Daymeeuhn claimed that the game was buggy and crash-prone, but also that it simply wasn’t as long as the developers claimed, as he managed to complete the game’s main objective of reaching the centre of the galaxy in “only” 30 hours…
Will No Man’s Sky be amongst this year’s best or worst games?
Never mind that the average game offers nowhere near 30 hours of gameplay (even superb releases like Journey can be completed in less than 10 hours), but we must also take into account that a huge game like No Man’s Sky is bound to be glitchy on release, given the enormous amount of gameplay options it offers players. Other games like Fallout 4 (one of 2015’s best games) also had issues at launch that developer Bethesda ironed out with a series of patches, and No Man’s Sky might even have a day one patch to sort out its launch day issues, no doubt.
The thing is though, that many times the Reddit forums are not the most reliable source of information, and reaching the conclusion that the game is going to be a disappointment based on one user’s claims on these forums would not be a wise thing at all. Also the guy spouting all this criticism claims to have paid more than $1000 US dollars for his advance copy of the game, which is a bit insane to say the least. How can he not be disappointed with No Man’s Sky, even if it was close to perfection, after having paid that amount of money for it?
So perhaps those eager to play the game should pay no attention to this latest Reddit scandal, and given that the game’s launch date is just around the corner, we’ll find out whether No Man’s Sky will be one of the year’s top releases (or not) soon enough…
Note: No Man’s Sky will be released on August 9, 2016 in the US, and August 10 in the UK and Europe. Available on PS4 and PC.